Elevator stop



Feb. 26, 1924. I 1,484,909

J. R. SMITH ELEVATOR STOP Filed Feb. 15. 1923 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Feb. 26 1924. 1,484,909

J. R. SMITH ELEVATOR STOP Filed Feb. 15. 1923 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Feb. 26, 1924.

JOHN It. SMITH. OF L055 AN'G'ELEFEi, GALIEQR-IUA.

Application filed February 15 1923.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Jenn E. SMITH, a citizen. of the United States, residing at Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented new and useful. Improvements in Elevator Stops, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to elevators and more particularly to elevator stops.

Because of the greater variation in the number of passengers raised and lowered in elevators and consequently because of the greater-variation in the loads carried up and down, elevator operators must use a great degree of skill, which is acquired only after long experience, in order to stop the eleva tor just at the level of the various fioors, since when the car is running light it may be stopped just at the level when the operating switch is thrown at the proper time, but when the car is running heavy the ole vator will be run past the landing if the controlling lever is thrown as judged to be proper by the operator when stopping the car with a light load. The result is that the elevator frequently is stopped a few inches too high or afew inches too low and a great deal of time is lost by the necessity of again lowering or raising the car the necessary few inches to register with the floor. It is an object of the present invention to provide means automatically operative to insure the stopping of the elevator at the proper level after the operator has thrown the main control lever to bring the car to a stop at such time as in his judgment will be proper irrespective of whether the car is loaded light or heavy.

Therefore, a further object of the present invention is to provide means controlled by the load in the elevator for controlling the actual cutting out of the operating power or mechanism whether electric or of other type.

Other objects and advantages will be made manifest in the following specification of an embodiment of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings, 'wherein Figure 1 is a side elevation and vertical section showing the invention in combination with the elevator car.

Fig. 2 is a perspective showing diagrammatically oneform of manually and automatically controlled car stopping means.

Fig. 3 is a bottom plan of the elevator car Serial No. 61.2%,QSS.

and the automatic mechanism applied there." to.

Fig. at is a. section and elevation of a portion of the automatic mechanism showing it in the: effective car stopping position.

Fig. is a, diagrammatic view showing the electric circuit closer in. closed position and showing the manual lever in two posi tions respective thereto.

In the illustrated emhodiment, the inven tion is shown as combined with an elevator car 2 vertically operating in suitable guides or rails 3, and in the car Q is provided a manual. control lever 4;, the lower end of which is shown as operatively connected with a .slidable circuit maker and circuit breaker conventionally shown as a slide 5 engageable by the contiguous end it of the manual lever 4. When the lever 41- is thrown to its maximum degree in one direction, as shown in Fig. 5, the circuit closer 5 engages a circuit terminal 6 and the circuit of an operating motor is energized and the elevator will be lifted or lowered as the case may be.

In my invention it is desirable that the manual lever l may have a limited amount of lost movement with respect to the circuit close-r 5 so that the lever 4 can be moved from either of its thrown positions to verti cal neutral position shown. inv full lines in Fig. 2, and at which time the end 4" of the lever will have moved to the position shown at 4, Fig. 5, without disengaging the circuit closer 5 from the engaged circuit terminal 6, therefore, leaving the motor of the car energized so that the car will have continued movement irrespective of the fact that the manual lever 4% has been shifted to the neutral position as ifby the intention of the operator to bring the car to a stop at a given floor.

It will be assumed, for the purposes of the present description, that the car is moving upward when the circuit closer is in en gagement with the circuit terminal 6.

Means are provided for automatically interrupting the drive mechanism of the elevator to bring it to a stop flush with a landing independently of and following the initial movement of the operator in bringing the operating lever 4 to neutral.

The car is shown as having any suitable framework within which there is arranged and supported a platform 10, and this platform is supported as at its four corners upon a set of converging scale arms or levers 11, the outer ends of which are pivotally supported as at 12 upon the framework of the car so that the load imposed on the levers 11 tends to swing their inner ends downwardly concurrently. The inner ends of the levers 11 converge and are mutually supported by a pin 13 which may be provlded with a slotted or grooved head M receiving the ends of the levers 11 and providing sliding movement therefor. The pressure pin 13 bears at its lower end upon and between the ends of a short lever 15, the swinging end of which is provided with a pressure bar 16 extending down and engaging a short lever arm 18 which is secured on a rock shaft 19 supported in suitable bearings 20 and 21; the bearing 20 being shown as carried by a frame element 22 forming a portion of the frame structure of the car.

Upon one end of the rock shaft 19 there is fixed a scale beam including an arm 25 and an arm 26 which extend diametrically oppositely from the rock shaft 19, the hub portion of the scale being provided with an aperture 27 permitting the beam to swing on a vertical pivot 28 fastening it pivotally to the rock shaft 19. Thus the ends of the beam are designed to swing in horizontal plane as will be explained hereinafter.

When the car is loaded light, the beam end 25 will rise as is indicated in Fig. 4, and as the floor or platform 10 is loaded with increased weight the transmitting levers acting through the pressure bar 16 will press downwardly with greater degree and so will tilt the rock shaft 19 and move the beam arm 25 downwardly a distance proportionate to the degree of load on the platform 10.

The weight beam is utilized as a means for automatically governing the actual stopping level of the platform 10 at the difi'erent floors in accordance with the weight carried by the platform. This au tomatic stopping of the car is secured by bringing eiements carried by the scale beam into effective position to engage tripping devices, such as cams or lugs 30 and 31 arranged on certain of the guides 3, preferably those on one side of the shaft in which tFhe elevator runs, as is clearly indicated in The normal position of the scale beanr 2526 is such as will cause devices carried thereby to travel up and down with the elevator car clear of the tripping cams 30-31, but when it is desired to bring the ear to a stop at a given level, means are provided for swinging the scale beam so as to brin 1 one or the other of devices carried there y into tripping engagement with the said cams, this registering action being accomplished as the main controlling lever 4 is moved from extreme to a neutral position. The automatic stopping of the car is accomplished b means which effects the disconnection o the circuit breaker 5 from its engaged terminal as 6 subsequently to the shifting of the manual control lever to the neutral position. A form of means for accomplishing this disconnection is shown as including preferably flexible connections as cables 32 and 33, the former of which leads to a trip lever 34 having a cam roller 35 at its outer end to engage the contiguous cam 30 at a floor as the elevator car moves up and when the beam arm 25 has been swung horizontaly to shift the trip lever 34 so that it will be present beneath the cam 30 to rise into contact therewith.

If the latform 10 is loaded light, it will be seen hat the trip lever 34 will have a relatively elevated position because of the upper position of its beam arm 25 relative to the car cage or frame so that the trip lever 34: will engage the cam 30 early when the car is ascending light. If the car is traveling up heavy, the scale beam arm 25 will be depressed and will thus shift the trip lever 34 to a lower position relative to the cage or frame and, therefore, the contact of the trip arm 34 will be late in its engagement with the cam 30 in compensation for the lower position of the latform 10 under its burden. The intermediate positions between early contact and late contact of the trip lever 34 with its cam 30 at each floor will obviously be determined according to the load on the car platform.

A car descending in its shaft loaded heavy will be brought to a stop early in its descent toward the floor, and on the contrary the descending car loaded light will be brought to a stop late as it approaches a floor at which the car is to be stopped. Therefore, the scale beam 26 is shown as connected to a supplemental lever 38 intermediatcly pivoted at 39 so that as the beam arm 26 rises under a load, the outermost arm 39 of the supplemental lever 38 will move down. This arm is provided by suitable connections with a trip lever 40 having a cam roller 41 designed to engage the tripping cam 31 at each floor, if a stop is to be made at the floor, in which case the main scale beam 25-26 with the supplemental lever 38 39 will have been so shifted as to bring the trip lever 10 vertically above the actuating cam 31 next in the path in which the car is descending.

The circuit breaking device 5 is shown as connected by a flexible element or cable 33 to the trip lever 40 so that as the car is descending when the trip lever is actuated by a cam 31, it will serve to electrically disconnect the circuit breaker from the dcscending contact element 6', Fig. 5, when the circuit breaker 5 is in en agement with.

the same obviously to contro the'descendin apparatus of the elevator.

@ince the scale beam 25--26 and the suplement-al lever 3839 will constantly vary its vertical position on the axis of the roc shaft 19, it is desirable to lock the scale beam elements as the trip lever-s 3440 are respectively engaged by their cams so as to prevent the reaction of the cams from changing the position of the scale beam elements which is naturally determined by the load imposed thereon through the press bar 16. To accomplish the automatic locking of the scale beam elements 25 and 39, these are shown as guided in toothed segments 44 and 45 which are shown as rigidly secured in downwardly extending posltion from a bolster 46 which is slidabl supported, at its ends, in guides 47 slida ly provided on the cage frame and providing for horizontal movement of thebolster so as to swing the scale beam elements on the pivot 28 passing throughthe rock shaft 19 and for the purpose of bringing the. trip levers 34-40 into alinement with the respective cams 30-31.'

The lever 34 is pivoted or hingedly connected at '48 to the contiguous arm of a bell crank 49 which is pivoted at 50 on the contiguous end of the scale beam arm 25, and the trip lever 34 is normally retracted to a limite position as by a sprin 51 connecting it to the contiguous arm 0% the bell crank 49.. This bell crank is yieldingly connected by a spring 52 to the beam arm 25,

the bell crank 49 tilt as one on the pivot 50 of the bell crank with the result that a looking pawl 53 is instantly pressed into interlock with the contiguous toothed face of the guide and segment 44 and, therefore, locking the beam arm 25 to the segment 44 so that the reaction of the cam 30 is prevented from tilting the beam arm 24 down and changing its osition as is primarily determined by the oad on the platform 10. As the car travels upwardly, the cam 30 then becomes effective to tilt the trip lever 34 on its hinge or pivot 48 while the bell crank 49 is held unyieldingly by the latch 53 and the segment 44.

This tilting action of the trip lever 34 results in taking up of a suitable degree of slack and pulling the connecting cable 32 so that it will shift the circuit breaker 5 from the position shown in Fig. 5 to that shown in Fig. 4, wherein the circuit breaker is out of contact with the previously en gaged terminal 6 which is engaged by the contact element 5 during the ascent of the elevator. This breaking of the circuit obvi-' ously results in the stopping of the car and by virtue of the automatic selection of the position of the trip lever 34 as determined y the load on the platform 10 the instant that the car comes to astop will be determined by the late or early engagement of the trip lever with an up cam 30.

The operation of the automatic stopping of the car while descending is similar to that just described with relation to the ascending trip lever or control 34. The trip lever '40 is shown as hingedly connected at 55 to a bell crank 56 which in turnis pivoted on the end of the supplemental lever 39, this lever serving to shift the lever 40 down as the platform is loaded. The lever 39 is automatically locked to the segment 45 by the tilting of the bell crank 56 which results in moving a locking latch 57 into engagement with the contiguous segment 45, and thereafter the trip lever 40 is tilted to bring the connecting cable. 33 taut with a result that the circuit controlling element 5 will be shifted from contact with its descending circuit control terminal 6'. It is understood that the operator does not break the ascend.- in and descending circuit currents when bringing the control lever 4 to a neutralv position; the actual'breaking of the'circuits being controlled and accomplished by the automatic trip levers 34 and 40 which in turn are positioned according to the load of the latform 0n the car.

M ans are provided for swinging the scale beam elements 25-26 and 3839 horizontally, as above stated, to effect the position ing of the trip levers as to the cams 30-31, and this means includes the bolster 46 slidingly mounted on the guides or supports 47-. The bolster 46 is connected at its ends by links 60 to a longitudinally shiftable rod 61 having in its ends pins 62 which may constitute pivot connections between the links 60 and the rod 61; the pins 62 being shown as projecting down into a cam plate or suitable element 63, one for each pin. The cam plates are provided with generally arcua-te slots 64 struck from the pivots of the links 60 so that when the longitudinally shiftable rod 61 -is shifted endwise in one direc-' tion or the other, the links 60 may swing without imparting any lateral shifting movement to the bolster 46. It is desirable to so shift the bolster 46 as to bring one of its trip levers as 34 into the path of a cam 30, and conversely to bring the other trip a thus to pull, in this case, the shift lever 34 further away from its neutral clearing position as respect to a cam 30, whilst the opposite end of the rod 61 will carry its pin 62 into a deflected portion 64 of the slot in the other plate; this deflection resulting in the thrusting of the conti ous link 60 and the connected end of the i dlster 46' in such direction as to push the trip lever 40 so that it will be in the vertical plane of a cam 31. Conversely, when it is desired to throw the trip lever 34 into vertical alinement with a cam 30, the actuating rod 61 is thrown in the opposite direction so that a pin 62 thereof 5 will enter a deflected portion 6-1 in a plate 63 which will push the contiguous link 60 and the contiguous end of the bolster 46 over and carry the trip lever 34 into operative position. During this action of the push rod 61, its other pin 62 will be carried into an outwardly deflected portion 64 which will carry the trip lever 40 further away from its neutral position.

The oscillations of the bolster 46 are socured as by means of a link 65 connected to the rod 61 and also to the lower end 4 of the control lever 4. Thus the movement of the control lever 4 by the operator as he approaches a stop or landing is to set a trip lever 34 or 40 into effective position according to whether the car is ascending or descending, and then the operating circuit of the elevating, mechanism Will be automatically broken as the trip levers severally engage their controlling cams.

The scale beam 2526 is provided with any suitable counterpoise device, such as shown in Fig. 1, as consisting of a plurality of poises which may be successively picked up during the upward movement of the scale arm 26, suitable connection being provided as by a lift link 67.

Further embodiments, modifications and changes may be resorted to within the spirit of the invention. as here claimed.

\Vhat is claimed is:

Elevator car stopping mechanism including in combination with the car, a

weight sensitive platform, cams mounted along the elevator shaft, power controlling means carried by the elevator car, and means affected by said cams and controlled by the position of the car platform under load for automatically actuating the power controlling means.

2. An elevator car having a weight sensitive floor, up and down stop cams along the elevator shaft, power controlling means on the car, and means tri ped by said cams and controlled by the 109. on the car platform for automatically actuating the power controlling means.

3. An elevator car having a weight sensitive floor, up and down stop cams along the elevator shaft, power controlling means on a frame, a scale beam balancing said platthe car, and balance means tripped b said cams and controlled by the load on t e car platform for automatically actuating the power controlling means.

4. An elevator car having a weight sensitive floor, up and down stop cams along the elevator shaft, power controlling means on the car, means tripped by said cams and controlled by the load on the car platform for automatically actuating the power controlling means, and manually operated means for rendering the said actuating means effective and ineffective.

5. An elevator car having a. platform and form freely in the frame, power contro ling means on the car, cams arranged along the shaft in which the elevator car runs, and means engageable with said cams and controlled by said beam to actuate the said power controlling means.

6. An elevator car having a platform and a. frame, a scale beam balancing said latform freely in the frame, power controlling means on the car, cams arranged along the shaft in which the elevator car runs, and means engageable with said-cams and controlled by said beam to actuate the said power controlling means, and whereby the platform is brought to re ister with a floor as determined by the loa on the platform.

In combination with an elevator car, means for bringing the car to a stop at a. floor level according to the load on the car, and manually controlled means for initiating action thereof.

8. In combination, an elevator car having a poised platform, up and down cams in the elevator shaft, power control means in the car, and car stopping means positioned variously according to the load on the platform. and a. manually operable controller for shifting the said stopping means.

9. In combination, an elevator car having a poised platform, up and down cams in the elevator shaft, power control means in the car, car stopping means positioned variously according to the load on the platform, and a manually operable controller for shifting the said stopping means to and from effective positions. 7

10. In combination, an elevator car having a poised platform, up and down cams in the elevator shaft, power control means in the car, car stopping means positioned variously according to the load on the platform, and a manually operable controller for shifting the said stopping means selectively with the up and down cams.

11. In combination, an elevator car having a poised platform, up and down cams in the elevator shaft, power control means in the car, car stopping means positioned variously according to the load on the platform, and means for locking elements of the iao said stopping means in any of the positions given it by the said platform.

12. An elevator car having a poised platform, an operators control lever in the car, up and down cams in the shaft in which the car operates, power control means rendered effective by the said lever, and means controlled by the said latform and operative by said cams for a ecting the said power controlling means to stop the car.

13. An elevator car having a poised plat form, an operators control lever in the car, up and down cams in the shaft in which the car operates, power control means rendered effective by the said lever, means controlled by the said latform and operatlve by said cams for a ecting the said power control means to stop the car, and connections between said stopping means and said lever whereby the said means is set or withdrawn as to the cams.

14-. An elevator car having a poised platform, an operators control lever in the car, up and down cams in the shaft in which the car operates, ower control means rendered eifectu'e by t e said lever, and means controlled by said latform and operative by said cams for a ecting the said power control means to stop the car, said stopping means including a scale beam device mov.- able vertically by load variation on the platform.

15. An elevator car having a poised platform, an operators control lever in the car, up and down cams in the shaft in which the car operates, lpower control means rendered efi'ectlve by t e said lever, and means controlled by said latform and operative by said cams for a ecting the said power control means to stop the car, said stopping means including a scale beam device movable vertically by load variation on the platform,and trippable parts carried by said beam device for engagement with said cams.

16. An elevator car having a poised platform, an operators control lever in the car, up and down cams in the shaft in which the car operates, power control means rendered effective by the said lever, and means controlled by said latform and operative by said cams for a ecting the said power control means to stop the car, said stopping means including a scale beam device movable vertically by load variation on the platform, and means for locking beam device in its several positions prior to the cam action on the stopping means.

17. An elevator car having a poised platform, an operators control lever in the car, up and down cams in the shaft in which the car operates, power control means rendered effective by the said lever, and means controlled by said latform and operative by said cams for a ecting the said power control means to stop the car, said stopping means including a scale beam device movable vertically by load variation on the platform, and means for locking said beam device in its several positions prior to the. cam action on the stopping means, the looking means being severally actuated by the said cams.

18. An elevator car having a poised platform, an operators control lever in the car, up and down cams in the shaft in which the car 0 crates, power control means rendered effective by the said lever, means controlled by said platform and operative by said cams for affecting the said power control means to stop the car, said stopping means including a scale beam device movable vertically by load variation on the platform, trippable parts carried by said beam device for'engagement with said cams, and means for locking said beam device in its several positions prior to the cam action on the stopping means.

19. In combination with an elevator car, means for bringing the car to a sto at a floor level according to the load on t e car, and manually controlled means for initiating action thereof and for holding the same inactivewhile passing floors.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

' JOHN R. SMITH 

